Basketball from a fan’s perspective

“Don’t let the sum total of your existence be 8 to 10 pounds of air” John Thompson

A Rod…NBA owner

Timberwolves owner Glenn Taylor has finally located a buyer for his team, Alex Rodriguez former Yankee shortstop and third baseman along with partner Marc Lore are the prospective new owners of the franchise.  Of course, purchase of the team must be approved by the NBA, on the surface this would appear to be a done deal.  The two would become minority owners and assume full ownership in 2023.  Lost in this good news is former Wolves player Kevin Garnett, at one time Garnett had expressed interest in purchasing the team. 

There are a handful of people who continue to question the financial stability of the NBA.  This soon-to-be sale offers us proof people with deep financial pockets remain interested in becoming NBA owners.  As soon as we receive the news of approval it will be affirmed in Word’s eye view.  Several letter writers responding to the news claim the A Rod group eventually intends to move the team to Seattle, Las Vegas or somewhere.  We don’t know this to a fact, it was reported at the time Taylor first placed the team on the market the bill of sale had/has provisions written into it prohibiting relocation of the franchise. 

No excuses allowed

The Lakers faced a particularly good Nets team, this member of Laker Nation had no idea what to expect from the Saturday evening match.  Naturally, I hoped for a win, with LeBron out plus AD and now Kyle Kuzma out I admit there was apprehension of the outcome.  Final score read Lakers 129 Nets 101; the Nets lead the league in scoring at 119 ppg.  They had players missing as well, one due to injury the other an ejection, James Harden was sidelined with an injury and Kyrie Irving left the game early.

Irving and the Lakers Dennis Schroeder got into a shouting match with both players receiving techs and ejection in the 3rd quarter.  Although Schroeder left the game Talen Horton-Tucker took over at the point.  He didn’t shoot particularly well from the floor scoring 14 points, but he managed to dish out 11 assists to teammates.  Andre Drummond, AD2 also came to play scoring 20 points and pulling down 11 rebounds and generally clogging the lane defensively. 

One writer claimed Drummond “played bully ball” with the Nets.  Perhaps the highlight of the night for Laker Nation might have been the role Ben McLemore played.  Coming off the bench he came into the game firing with incredible accuracy.  His 17 points were accomplished on 50% shooting from the floor along with 50% from the 3 line.  McLemore would state after the game his teammates kept telling him to shoot the ball. 

You are an agent of the company 

I must admit I was never a fan of Paul Pierce; I must concede part of it revolves around the fact he played most of his career with the Celtics.  The wheelchair game stands out in my memory, Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals Pierce went down with an apparent injury just before half time.  Apparently, he was hurt so badly a wheelchair was brought on to the court and he was wheeled into the locker room. 

Meanwhile through the miracle of modern medicine (or at least we thought at the time) he ran onto the court in the second half of the game or was that the case?  In 2019 Pierce finally confessed, an emergency run to the bathroom was required and the wheelchair was the only method he was able to preserve his dignity.  After retirement in 2017 Pierce went to work for ESPN as an analyst that is until last week, he was fired by the network.  On his day off he sent out a racy Instagram video of him playing poker surrounded by several women. 

Pierce was seen smoking something although we are unsure exactly what it was.  After the termination fans and maybe others came rushing to his defense, how could they (ESPN) fire him when he wasn’t at work?  Rest assured, Pierce signed a contract with the network.  It likely detailed what he could do versus what he couldn’t.  Fans mentioned other individuals had been suspended rather than terminated by ESPN.  The only answer we can conclude each case is unique and different, you cannot use one instance to detail what should occur in another.